


Come Home

by Anonymous



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Cas is family, Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Possessive Winchesters, Protective Winchesters (Supernatural), Rescue Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 10:07:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19226974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Heaven will fall unless every available angel returns.  Cas chooses to go rather than see his human family suffer, but that doesn’t mean the Winchesters are going to accept that decision.All they need to do is find another angel to take Cas’s place.





	Come Home

“We won’t have long,” Sam says. He dumps the empty fuel cans back in the trunk, shuts it over, and then catches the lighter Dean tosses to him.

“Won’t need long,” Dean says, because this will either work, in which case he plans to grab his family and bolt, or it won’t work in which case…

Well, fuck it. It is going to work, he’s going to make sure of it.

He reaches into the back seat, grabs a fistful of collar, and hauls the owner out.

Metatron splutters indignantly at them. “I thought we were on the same side, boys! This is unfair and so _unnecessary_!”

He tries to tug free from Dean’s grip but, even souped up with the Grace they poured into him, he’s not got the tablet any more so the cuffs around his wrists will hold him.

“Same side? You caused this whole fucking mess, asshole,” Dean snaps at him. ‘Your tab’s due.” And now they know he’s alive, now they’ve dragged him out from under his rock like the snake he is, he’s going to settle up.

He looks to Sam, nods, and holds Metatron in place while Sam begins the summoning.

He invokes Cas with a trembling voice, and Dean gets it - since Cas left, everything has seemed broken and worthless, because their family is down one, and everything in them both has been screaming for that to be fixed.

It’s going to be now, one way or the other. Either Cas will be coming back with them, or they’ll be going with Cas. 

The portal opens like a gleaming bright eye, and then Cas steps through, but he’s not alone, which is okay, Dean figured on that.

The angels flanking him look more like a prison detail than moral support and Dean glares at them before looking Cas over.

“You okay?” 

He can see Cas doing the same to them, spots the soft, relieved look on Cas’s face at seeing them again, that they’re well, but it’s quickly schooled. “Dean.”

Dean shakes his head, stopping Cas before he can start. “No. I meant it when I said you belong with us. You didn’t really think we were just going to let you go?”

“You’re our family, Cas,” Sam says, and he sounds ready to just grab Cas and refuse to let him go.

“He’s our family,” one of the angels corrects him. “Not yours. You Winchesters really do think so much of yourselves that you would consider being _related_ to an angel.”

The look Cas shoots the guy promises nothing great in his immediate future and Dean fights back a grin.

“We’re the ones who’ve been there for him,” Sam says. “He’s a Winchester.”

Dean nods, but this isn’t going to turn into a Kramer vs Kramer moment. “Look, you guys needed an angel. So Cas went back to you. Well, we’ve got an alternative option.”

He nudges Metatron forward, keeping a hand on his arm.

Cas’s jaw drops open, but then he scowls at the scribe. 

Metatron glares back, but he’s shaking and Dean isn’t sure if it’s being face to face with the angel he hurt so badly, while Cas was helpless (as Metatron is now) or it’s about the prospect of being hauled back upstairs.

“You want a...swap?”

It kind of is like a hostage exchange, Dean figures. They blackmailed Cas into going back, and the little escort detail proves they’re worried about Cas actually staying.

“You need batteries. This one’s got more juice.”

He sends a silent prayer of apology to Cas, without taking his eyes off the other two angels.

“I’d prefer to stay down here,” Metatron bleats.

“I’d prefer you shut up,” Dean says.

Sam nods. “You were all about ‘helping’ Heaven,” he says. “Making it run better. Here’s your chance.”

Metatron gives Sam a twisted look, and then decides to plead his case direct.

“You already have Castiel. He’s there willingly, whereas I…” He holds up his hands, showing the angel proof cuffs around his wrists. “I’m a prisoner of these humans.”

The angels glance at each other, from Cas to Metatron, and then back.

“It’s inappropriate for an angel to be held captive by humans,” the second angel says.

Metatron grins savagely, and Dean eyes the oil circle Sam drew around where the angels are standing right now.

Sees Sam inching closer to Cas, and it’ll be tight, risky, but he trusts Sam, knows he’ll yank Cas clear in time.

“And you still have crimes to answer for,” angel one says.

Metatron’s grin drains away like dirty water. “I’m not going.”

“Even without the tablet, you’re powerful enough to account for a dozen of us. And you owe a debt. You are to blame for our current predicament.”

“Not alone!” Metatron shrieks and points at Cas. “I didn’t do it alone!”

If this goes wrong, the last thing Dean’s going to do is slice this little fucker up.

“We’re well aware of who was involved and how,” the first angel says. “And of who has settled their account, and who has yet to pay.”

He nods at Dean, and then looks at Cas. “You can go with them, if you wish.”

Sam doesn’t give Cas a chance to answer, just reaches out and grabs Cas and yanks him away, pushes Cas behind him like he’s scared the angels might just change their mind.

They don’t, just look expectantly at Dean.

He shoves Metatron forward, holds on to him until he’s close enough to the other angels that the piece of shit can’t run for it.

A moment later there’s a brilliant burst of light, and Metatron and the other two angels are gone.

Dean turns to find Sam hugging Cas tight enough to break.

He rolls his eyes but, when Sam lets go, he pulls Cas to him, and holds on like he shares Sam’s fears, that something will just up and snatch Cas away again.

“It’s okay,” Cas tells him. “Dean…. Can I come home?”

Dean guides Cas to the car, gets him settled in the back seat, and then turns them towards the bunker.

++

They lie there, that night, Cas changed into borrowed sleepwear, snuggled up tight against Dean’s side.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

Dean’s carding his fingers gently through the angel’s hair. It still hurts, that Cas left, but he gets it; on some level, Cas was taken rather than went, sacrificing himself again because Heaven was failing, and that meant the end of everything.

He chose to go back to the place that had abused and broken him rather than see the Winchesters, and the world, suffer.

How many times have they made the same choice, risked everything to keep complete strangers safe?

But it doesn’t matter because they have him back, now, and Dean’s determined, this time, never to let him go again.

“I know. Just, this time, Cas, please…. Stay?”

Cas reaches up to pull Dean into a kiss, and nods. 

And he does.


End file.
